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Logan racial feud ends in hugs

Nathan Paull and Petrina Berry

A racial feud between two families in Queensland's south-east has ended in handshakes and hugs.

The Aboriginal and Pacific Islander families - in the multicultural city of Logan, south of Brisbane - on Wednesday settled the enmity that had engulfed Douglas St in suburban Woodridge.

The indigenous family at the centre of the stoush moved out of their home and asked for privacy as they rebuild their lives on the Gold Coast.

But community leaders are aware tensions will continue to simmer in what is one of the most racially diverse cities in Australia.

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Logan Mayor Pam Parker will next month convene a two-day safety summit, involving community leaders and representatives from state and federal governments, to look at the underlying causes of the clash.

"We have extremely high unemployment in Woodridge and it's been inter-generational," Ms Parker said.

"That's something we'd want to be looking at."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has even flagged a new national approach, triggered by the Logan clashes, to deal with violence in suburban Australia.

Premier Campbell Newman has rejected the idea, saying police and the state government will deal with the problem.

The confrontations began to subside on Tuesday night after both sides agreed to police-brokered peace deals.

"At the end of it they were joking and laughing," Inspector Dave Nevin, from the Logan district, told AAP.

"There may have been a bit of embarrassment (about their behaviour)."

Tim Briggs, who is relocating to the Gold Coast with his wife and children, said the evening peace talks on Tuesday had been a turning point.

"As we spoke, my young son and their son - there was beautiful communication there with the two of them, and their elders and our elders," he told reporters.

"I just want to be a peacemaker to all my fellow brothers and sisters out there, to move on in life."

Friend Paul Butterworth said the Briggs family was planning a barbecue soon with the Pacific Islander family.

"It's all over now," he told reporters.

"Both sides agree it was the young ones, mainly the teenagers, who were clashing."

The four days of clashes, said to have been sparked by a disagreement at a set of traffic lights, have prompted only a handful of arrests.

Police maintained a presence in the street for most of the time and tried to calm the situation without taking enforcement action.

The situation came to a head on Saturday night after a group of Pacific Islanders besieged the indigenous family's home with machetes, bricks and metal poles, forcing the occupants to cower in a back room.